San Marcos free press. [volume] (San Marcos, Tex.) 1877-1892, 1887-03-24
WASHINGTON LETTER.
WASHINGTON, March Z, 1887.


years, and surpasses that Of nlmos
every Congress which was divided b
the two great political parties int
two hostile camps.
II afforded striking example, toe
OF the constant increase in the vol
nme OF desired legislation which la
been going on for the last six o.
eight years. More bills were intro
dnccd in both Houses OF the Forty
ninth. more committee reports wer'
made, more bills were passed, more
became laws and more were vetoed
than ever before by any Congress.
There were introduced into the
House dnring the two sessions H.
25S bills and 263 joint resolutions,
on winch over 5000 reports were
made. This was several thousand
moro bills and over n thousand more
reports than were made by the Forty.
eighth Congress, which had, in its
turn. beaten the record IN the SEN
ate there were introduced over 5000
bills on which nearly 1000 written
reports were made. being upward Of
500 more bills than by the record
breaking Forty eighth. The death
roll also of the last Congress was nm
usually long, comprising thirteen
names.
The total number OF laws enacted
was about 1000, while 1872 were ve.
toed by the President, making TWEEN
ty-one more more instances OF the
exercise of the Presidential prcrog-
ative OF veto than had occurred from
tho foundation of the Government
down to tho beginning Of this Con
gress. Only one private pension bill
and one public bill, namely that pro-
: viding for Government building n,
. Dayton, Ohio, succeeded in passing
both houses over the Presidents We.
to. As to what became Of various
important bills which faled, lack of
space will forbid me to tell their
whole story in detail. Quite num-
Der of them. however, which were
passed by both houses, never reached
the President because of differences
in regard to them between the two
houses.
Congress was in session the whole
night preceding day of adjournment.
The House, with unusual pertinacity,
sat continuously from eight o'clock
Thursday night until Friday noon,
the hour at which the session tx
pired. The usual scenes of last
night were enacted. The Capitol
was filled with people who wanted to
see the close, but only small por'
tion of whom could gain admittance
to the already crowded galleries.
Congress reverses the usual circum'
stances which associate themselves
with death scene. 1t does away
with all solemnity and quiet, decor
Ous hush and suppression of noise.
People who want to witness the
most riotous scenes Of which n rep
yesentative body can be guilty, have
only to crowd tie galleries during
the dying hours of Congress. if
they want to see men of reputed dig
nifty in undignified antics. they will
not be disappointed, for there is Ii
cense then which at other times is
not INDUCED. Never since Congress
had an existence has there been such
haste and general disre-
gard of parliamentary safeguards in
the transaction of business, as char
acterized the proceedings of Thurs
day, Thursday night and Friday
When it was rumored, about noon
on Friday, that the President was
on his way to the Capitol ut the re-
quest of Speaker Carlisle, who in.
formed him that certain scarcely fin
ished bills could be saved from death
in no other way, the crowd in the
Capitol began to surge toward the
Senate wing, thu Presidents room
being in that end of the Capitol. The
result was that the police force had
more than it could do to control the
swaying mass of humanity that
wanted to see the President. Con
gressmen also, with varying success,
made vigorous efforts to squeeze their
way through the crowd to inquire if
The arbiter of the destiny of certain
bills in which they We're Interested
had arrived
He came with several members OF
MS Cabinet, repaired to his room and
settled down to business. But the
,lock now pointed to twelve. There
was limit to the speed and cndur-
ance of clerical fingers, and the
tagged out enrolling clerks who had
been running race with time won
,nly in the case of District Appro
oriation bill. And this was due to
hat venerable officer, Capt. Bassett,
who armed himself with sas-lighter
md (as he has done biennially for q
quarter of century, mounted chair
md pulled back the hands of the
senate clock. The President signed
bis promptly, but the hands of the
lock crept up TO twelve again be-
lore the Deficiency bill could be en-
crossed, and it failed.